Power Play Series: Energy & Coal Mining

June 21, 2007 | While Senate Democrats have proposed renewable energy as the solution to high greenhouse gas emissions and U.S. reliance on a foreign oil supply, the coal-mining industry thinks another answer could be simpler—and just under our feet. According to the mining industry, clean and domestically produced fuel can be developed from coal, one of the U.S.’s most abundant resources, using coal-to-liquid (CTL) technology.

Coal-mining, refining and transportation companies strongly supported an amendment to the energy bill offered by senators from mining states—Democrats Jon Tester of Montana and Jay Rockefeller and Robert Byrd of West Virginia—that would have provided government funding for the development of CTL technologies. Coal companies also stood behind an amendment by Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) that would have required the production of 6 billion gallons of CTL fuel by 2022 under a fuel-mandate program. While the mining industry at first may have seen this bill as a chance to gain financially, the fact that both amendments failed this week on the Senate floor signaled that the industry may need to adopt a more defensive strategy in order to minimize damage to its companies.

MINING

Select Organizations that Lobbied on Energy and Nuclear Power in 2006

Total Lobbying Expenditures, 2006*

Peabody Energy

$2,820,000

Americans for Balanced Energy Choices

$2,562,991

National Mining Assn

$2,395,097

TECO Energy

$1,850,000

Rio Tinto Group

$280,000

Coal Utilization Research Council

$240,000

CONSOL Energy

$240,000

Drummond Co

$220,000

Arch Coal

$97,000

Reynolds Raw Materials

$40,000

*Total reflects all issues lobbied on in 2006, including, but not limited to, energy and nuclear power.

CTL advocate Byrd was the No. 5 congressional recipient of funds from the coal-mining industry in 2006, receiving at least $42,000 from the industry, the most of any Democratic candidate. Byrd has received at least $124,000 from the coal industry since 1989, while Rockefeller and Bunning have received $119,000 and $101,000, respectively. Coal-mining companies have donated just $12,500 to bill sponsor Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) over his career, half of which was contributed just last year.

In order to promote the development of CTL fuel, the National Mining Association (NMA) teamed up with a number of energy developers, labor unions and transportation companies to form the Coal-to-Liquids Coalition (CTLC), which contends that the funding of 10 domestic CTL plants is essential if the U.S. hopes to become energy self-sufficient. According to CTLC spokesman Corey Henry, CTL fuels emit less carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other harmful greenhouse gases than the fuels they replace, making them “clean” fuels.

Environmental groups disagree, arguing that the production of the fuels itself releases more climate-changing gases into the atmosphere. “That is true if you produce the fuel without any type of carbon-capturing and storage,” Henry said, noting that this would not be the case in the U.S., where plants have committed to collecting excess carbon dioxide and storing it underground. “Environmental organizations paint the worst-case scenarios of CTL,” he said.

According to Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the NMA, the coal-mining industry’s recent lobbying efforts have largely sought to counteract anti-coal-to-liquid advertisements that are “misleading at best” by printing its own ads in the same Washington publications. “We’re trying to set the record straight,” Popovich said.

In addition to running a “a fairly substantial inside-the-Beltway advertising campaign,” according to Henry, the coalition has also been active in meeting with senators from both parties to talk about provisions that could be added to the bill that would be in the coal industry’s best interests.

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Viveca Novak
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press@crp.org

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